Saturday, February 29, 2020
Friday, February 28, 2020
Thursday, February 27, 2020
NIETZSCHE IN TEN SENTENCES
1.
Nietzsche adored his father, who died when Friedrich
was only five, compelling him to later write, “Black clouds billowed up, the
lightning flashed and damaging thunderbolts fell from the heavens.”
2.
Maybe, for Nietzsche, that is when God died; or maybe
it was six months later when he looked out his bedroom window to see a white
spirit rise from his father’s grave and enter the nearby church, organ music
playing, then returning to the grave with something beneath its arm; for when
Nietzsche awakened from this dream, his brother Little Joseph, not quite two
years old, suffered a stroke and died.
3.
It was in Leipzig in 1866, while at university, that
Nietzsche contracted syphilis after visiting a brothel.
4.
Perhaps Nietzsche felt stronger for it, but anxiety,
migraine headaches, nausea and poor eyesight compelled poor Fritz, at age 35, to relinquish his chair as a classics professor at the University
of Basle and seek a quieter, calmer place for the full-time writing of
experimental philosophy.
5.
Thus Nietzsche found Sils Maria, where walking–and the
electromagnetic power of the Engadine valley–gave him solace and inspiration,
supplemented by hashish oil, which contributed to his very deep thinking.
6.
On June 3rd, 1889, while standing on the
Piazza Carlo Alberto in Turin, Nietzsche suffered a nervous breakdown when he
saw a man beating a horse; sobbing, he rushed to embrace and comfort the horse,
placing both arms around the nag’s neck.
7.
Nietzsche was led back to his room nearby, and when he
awakened from a nap, Fritz believed he had succeeded God (whom he’d already
declared dead) as ruler of all mankind–suggesting also that he could control
the weather.
8.
Nietzsche’s doctor, a close friend, was summoned and,
upon arrival, arranged for Fritz to be smuggled out of Italy–to Basle,
Switzerland– for fear the Italians would forcibly confine him.
9.
Throughout the journey by train, Nietzsche sang,
danced, shouted and asked that women be brought to him; Swiss doctors soon
declared him insane.
10.
The mediocrity
of man, along with syphilis microbes mulching his brain, and hashish oil and
chloral hydrate (which Nietzsche took for sleep), had driven the philosopher
mad; and, faithless, since God for him had long since died, Nietzsche spent the
last ten years of his life casually strolling a lunatic asylum before
transcending from the chaos of his life into a dancing star.
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
FLIP COIN # 5
One ounce of silver from Tuvalu.
For when it's time to hit the Yellow Brick Road.
Heads: Head for home.
Tails: Go to Kansas.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
FLIP COIN # 4
Two ounces of silver with an amber "snake eye."
A special-issue 1500 franc coin from Togo.
The snake, for shedding its skin, symbolizes renewal.
SUMMONED BY NIETZSCHE 10: LIBERATION
Van Stein and I sit at the bar of
Waldhaus with a bottle of Alsace Riesling.
It is cold, not sweet, near perfect.
Van Stein studies the collection of
orbs on his camera, shows me Nietzsche.
“It’s orbasmic!”
“Why us?” I ask. “Why are we tuned into this stuff and not
others?”
Van Stein shrugs. “We are exactly where we’re meant to be.”
“I speak Californian, too, but
there’s more to it,” I say. “I think
it’s because we, for our own individual reasons, unlike most other people, have
managed to escape life by rote, nine-to-five jobs with scheduled annual
vacations to the same old resorts. We
avail ourselves. That’s the only sense I
can make of this.”
JL and Mazey appear.
Says Mazey to Van Stein, “I’ve been
totally blown away.”
Van Stein exchanges glances with
me. “Is this a set up?”
I chuckle. “Before you got here this evening,” I say to
Mazey, “I used those exact words about you being blown away. But I haven’t told him why.”
We stroll down to Alpenrose Romantik restaurant, a hotel Nietzsche
lodged in before moving into Nietzsche Haus, and where he took his meals.
The dining room shows no trace of
Nietzsche, but instead features a large abstract portrait of Albert Einstein
with colored orbs in a semi-circle over his head.
If we’d expected Nietzsche Franks & Beans or a plaque in his honor, we were plumb out of luck.
We order "salmon-three-ways" and "spaghetti with large shrimp in piquant tomato sauce," over which Mazey and JL
tell their tachyon energy stories to Van Stein.
The interesting thing about this
dinner is how we, the four of us, are completely focused upon ourselves. Food
and wine is delivered, but we are generally oblivious to all else, riveted by
our non-stop mirth and merriment, laughing as if stoned on good cannabis,
entranced by the bond we now share through this mystical travel experience.
Mazey produces her camera and snaps
a shot of Van Stein, inspects the image.
“I got one! I got one!” She shows it around: an orb hovering over Van Stein’s head.
After dinner, we drive to Nietzsche
Haus to see it in darkness.
I snap a photo, the first from my camera.
An orb appears. Not just the usual ball of white translucent
light, which is just plain boring by now. This large
orb is multi-colored, like a shimmering opal.
“Oh, my goodness,” says Van
Stein. “This is Nietzsche: I’m
free! I’m free! I’m coming back with you guys! No question, we liberated him.”
Saturday, February 22, 2020
FLIP COIN # 3
One ounce of silver, issued by the Bank of Mongolia.
For flipping when it's time to go down the rabbit hole.
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